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104. Lisa Cairns

Lisa started spiritually seeking in her early 20’s. She had her first awakening in 2005 after attending a talk given by Tony Parsons. After this, she spent some time in India with Ramesh Balsekar. It was there that she met her final teacher, Roger Castillo, who was also a student of Ramesh. She lived with him for three years in Australia during which time many falsehoods were seen through. In the beginning of 2011, Lisa’s awakening stabilized and the seeker fell away. Lisa now enjoys communicating the nature of Happiness to anyone desperate enough to know the truth.

157 thoughts on “104. Lisa Cairns”

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snowleopard on January 26, 2012 at 2:35 pm said:
“Speaking of reactions, one more thought arises … Nothing personal but never underestimate the worth of a simple apology and/or a little reciprocal forgiveness — considered a sign of weakness in this age of cynicism it seems — whenever the appearance of stepping on someone’s toes may happen. Not guaranteed to work, but perhaps worth a try. Of course, if conflict is what is desired, then feel free to ignore this suggestion … not that there’s anything wrong with that. But expect escalation.”
>>>>>>

there is a Hawaiian prayer… which has an interesting story… a psychologist assigned to a prison with hardened criminals… did an experiment… without even seeing them in person… he applied the prayer while looking at the file of each prisoner… and amazing transformations supposedly occurred… there is a very similar approach with the Jain teacher Dadashri … whose Gnan Vidhi teachings are offered by his disciple Deepakbhai… Jan Esman studied with Deepakbhai… and i attended a few of his programs in USA…

the ho’o-pono-pono prayer… which you can read quite a bit about on Internet… & YT… but its basic premise… which seems advaitic… is that everything that comes within your experience… good or bad… even the bad of others… somehow you have contributed to… and one effective way to start undoing it… is this simple prayer… a great spiritual psychology i feel… i use it and i know several others that use it… it’s healing for both you and the other… at the same time… you don’t have to confront the other… simply the prayer should be sincere from your heart… with deep feelings… try it you may like it … or not…

“Of course, if conflict is what is desired, then feel free to ignore this suggestion …”

I’d say lock’em up… Enough people really do desire conflict, which shouldn’t be encouraged. Otherwise, great post, Anatol! But then, it couldn’t be otherwise. It’s good that Lisa points that out. She’s really nice and childish in a positive way, although I personally like Balsekar’s teaching style slightly better.

Basically, however, you can get Balsekar’s teaching from one of the so-called new atheists, Sam Harris. His take on free will is pretty much the same as Balsekar’s. If you leave your belief in an interventionist God and fully accept Darwininan evolution and naturalism, the concept of no-freewill (non-doership) follows logically from that. Unfortunately, many atheists don’t see that or draw false conclusions from it.

A vital piece of information is that there are two pieces to the puzzle not just the one of awakening.

Piece 1 is to clear your human dramas

Piece 2 is experiencing spiritual awakening

You can learn all about awakening but until you clear the low level energy emotions of fear, hate, anger, guilt and jealously you cannot progress very far in experiencing your spiritual awakening.
It is like there is a filter as you awaken a little that stops you progressing because the low energy vibrations are not allowed to be dragged up into the higher dimensions.
Once the human dramas are cleared the spiritual experiences seem to automatically open up so there is need for seeking.
Well, that is my story anyways.

Thanks Gerry, I’ve looked at this “to be and not to be” before and find it still poses the problem of identification. “To be” can be seen to “not be”. The notion of beingness implies the potential for identification as that. Can there be beingness without identification? This leaves me with Non-beingness as non-beingness? To be and not to be is seen as identification and non-identification.

@Graham “It is quite funny that many people are seeking spiritual awakening as an escape from human dramas but it doesn’t generally work because the dramas keep you pinned down.”
………………………….

I think that it’s a great point to talk about human dramas and emotional traumas…

Too often among some teachers and within the non-dual community… There is an emphasis to negate everything, it’s like DENIAL to the extreme.
There is no seeker, no world, nothing is happening, etc. therefore thoughts aren’t real, emotions aren’t real, fear doesn’t exist, seeking doesn’t exist, nothing to do, nothing to learn…. just rest in the absolute awareness consciousness empty void, brainless bliss….

Somehow the constant negation can make some sense and be effective to a point… but the problem is…. the world somehow seems to keep appearing….
There’s still plenty of selves doing activity that looks like seeking (even if it’s constant reinforcement of the belief that there’s no seeker), and even the most calm mindful loving commenters here can still get triggered with emotions of hurt, pain, anger, defensiveness and react with attacking language and name calling or just dismissiveness….

In Adyashanti’s most recent book “Falling into Grace” one chapter is titled “Experiencing the Raw Energy of Emotion” with some sub-sections titled “Allow your suffering to speak”, “How we maintain our suffering”, “Having a complete experience”, “Letting go of our resistance to what is there”.. He thought dealing with emotional suffering was worth devoting attention to, wanted to clear up misconceptions, and thought it helpful to offer instructional suggestions for practice.

I also have found addressing and processing emotional issues and trauma to be quite helpful for me…. a happier nervous system and psychology makes spiritual practices a whole lot easier.. There isn’t necessarily a need to dig up emotions, they will naturally come to the surface and want to be addressed, just allow them to be fully felt, experienced and heard consciously, and usually that’s enough or a good starting point…

“Somehow the constant negation can make some sense and be effective to a point… but the problem is…. the world somehow seems to keep appearing….” – Graham

An appearance of X can only be problematic if you are desiring Y in place of X. A natural by-product of being attached to one over another.

“There isn’t necessarily a need to dig up emotions, they will naturally come to the surface and want to be addressed, just allow them to be fully felt, experienced and heard consciously, and usually that’s enough or a good starting point…” – Graham

Anapanasati meditation facilitates that quite well Feeling-forms appear, as do thought-forms. With the sole intention of being aware of them, they, in turn, appear and dis-appear. As do all forms/appearances.

In time, your awareness of all forms drops the intention of being aware of them. And there remains naked awareness sans any intentions.

And maybe I’m just a bit slow or something, but I can’t really grasp or find the main substantial point either of you were trying to make.

Would it be possible to simplify things, share from your personal experience as to what has worked or not worked for you? or from personal observations of what has worked or hasn’t worked for others? I get a headache trying to follow things from an abstracted impersonal absolute point of view.

“Would it be possible to simplify things, share from your personal experience as to what has worked or not worked for you?”

For me, the most potent practice with quick results is simply turning my attention away from whatever I am thinking or experiencing and focusing on the subject, or the knower of thoughts/experiences. I guess it should be enough to do it for an hour or two every day. Whatever comes to mind, just turn away from it and look at the other end – look at the looker.http://goo.gl/ugxkA
If you feel that you know something, there must be a sense of “me”, the knower. Look at it. Keep looking until you recognize that you are distracted and then immediately look back again. Don’t waste any time being caught up in thoughts and the result (recognition of your true nature) will be very quick. It all depends on your determination. That’s why it’s important to remind yourself about suffering and impermanence from time to time – just to keep in mind why you are doing it in the first place and not get stuck in some pleasant temporary state.

Surely the relevance of all the seeking is each of the practices that were not liberation are pointers away from practices that are not liberation.
Spiritual seeking is just more entertainment, like anxiety, depression or illness.
Man your site assumes a lot about Math skills LOL

Apparently, the separate minding wants desperately that the awaken perspective gives it a little chance. That ain’t gonna happen. The description from the awaken is utterly simple and disarming for the description from the separate perspective, that it surely seems ruthless.

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